I grew up in a small, rural town in Vermont on the New York border. I attended school with the same nine students from kindergarten through sixth grade. There were fewer than one hundred students in the entire school, and I have fond memories of my experience. I feel that school was beneficial for me due to the connections students enjoyed with the teachers in a supportive, caring environment.
The way I study and learn today has remained the same for as long as I can remember. I always needed to connect things; I could never simply memorize information without identifying relationships between concepts. The most important test I remember happened in sixth grade when we had to learn every state capital. My teacher, Ms. Beecher, taught us a song to remember the capitals and passed out a map to help us visualize where the states were. That was the first time (that I can remember) I stopped trying to memorize and instead connected the capitals to the states on the map while singing my song. I will never forget how proud I was of my states exam grade. It was so long ago, yet I remember exactly how I felt and what the yellow smiley sticker looked like, because it was the first time someone taught me how to study for an exam without just memorizing. To this day, I cannot cram for exams. I’m a visual learner; I need to write things down, take notes, and draw connections between one topic and another. Ms. Beecher understood that not every student learns in the same way. She spent a lot of time with me individually and I feel that she genuinely wanted to help me learn how to study instead of solely learn my state capitals.
To be sure, the overall environment was quite beneficial for me academically, but not so much socially. I remember being entirely intimidated when I had to transfer schools during seventh grade. Five of us were moved to New York, while the other four students went to a school in another town in Vermont. It was very difficult to leave the same classmates I had known for so long to join a class of 120 students in New York. The experience was especially shocking because it became quickly evident how sheltered I had been in comparison to my classmates who had attended a large school all along. I couldn't believe how my new classmates were talking to one another—swearing, discussing what I thought were inappropriate topics--and their knowledge outside of academics sent me reeling. I felt totally out of place. Thankfully, after the initial shock of an awkward seventh-grade year, I found myself participating in enriching experiences such as meeting new friends, joining sports, and becoming active in academic groups. These opportunities afforded me a typical middle and high school experience.
Thanks to the teachers and support I received throughout elementary and middle school, I feel my early education primed me for later success. The one-on-one attention I received on a daily basis is something that students are rarely fortunate enough to receive these days. I know my former classmates and I have been very successful thus far and owe much of that to our school, which provided us with opportunities for growth and unique ways of learning.
The way I study and learn today has remained the same for as long as I can remember. I always needed to connect things; I could never simply memorize information without identifying relationships between concepts. The most important test I remember happened in sixth grade when we had to learn every state capital. My teacher, Ms. Beecher, taught us a song to remember the capitals and passed out a map to help us visualize where the states were. That was the first time (that I can remember) I stopped trying to memorize and instead connected the capitals to the states on the map while singing my song. I will never forget how proud I was of my states exam grade. It was so long ago, yet I remember exactly how I felt and what the yellow smiley sticker looked like, because it was the first time someone taught me how to study for an exam without just memorizing. To this day, I cannot cram for exams. I’m a visual learner; I need to write things down, take notes, and draw connections between one topic and another. Ms. Beecher understood that not every student learns in the same way. She spent a lot of time with me individually and I feel that she genuinely wanted to help me learn how to study instead of solely learn my state capitals.
To be sure, the overall environment was quite beneficial for me academically, but not so much socially. I remember being entirely intimidated when I had to transfer schools during seventh grade. Five of us were moved to New York, while the other four students went to a school in another town in Vermont. It was very difficult to leave the same classmates I had known for so long to join a class of 120 students in New York. The experience was especially shocking because it became quickly evident how sheltered I had been in comparison to my classmates who had attended a large school all along. I couldn't believe how my new classmates were talking to one another—swearing, discussing what I thought were inappropriate topics--and their knowledge outside of academics sent me reeling. I felt totally out of place. Thankfully, after the initial shock of an awkward seventh-grade year, I found myself participating in enriching experiences such as meeting new friends, joining sports, and becoming active in academic groups. These opportunities afforded me a typical middle and high school experience.
Thanks to the teachers and support I received throughout elementary and middle school, I feel my early education primed me for later success. The one-on-one attention I received on a daily basis is something that students are rarely fortunate enough to receive these days. I know my former classmates and I have been very successful thus far and owe much of that to our school, which provided us with opportunities for growth and unique ways of learning.